FIRST SETTLEMENTS AROUND THE

WORLD

Student: Nevena akarevi, broj indeksa 8/2014

Predmet: Engleski jezik
Geografski fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu, smer Prostorno
planiranje, akademska 2014/2015. godina
Predava: Zorica Prnjat

Beograd, novembar 2014.

Contents

Introduction
Mesopotamia
Egypt
India
Ancient China
America

Introduction
Human settlement means cluster of dwellings of any type or size where human beings live. For
this purpose, people may erect houses and other structures and command some area or territory
as their economic support-base. Thus, the process of settlement inherently involves grouping of
people and apportioning of territory as their resource base.
Ancient civilizations (so as early settlements) refers specifically to the first settled and stable
communities that became the basis for later states, nations, and empires.
The first ancient societies arose in Mesopotamia and Egypt in the Middle East, in the Indus
Valley region of modern Pakistan, in the Huang He (Yellow River) valley of China, on the island
of Crete in the Aegean Sea, and in Central America. All of these civilizations had certain features
in common. They built cities, invented forms of writing, learned to make pottery and use metals,
domesticated animals, and created fairly complex social structures with class systems.
Once people could control the production of food and be assured of a reliable annual supply of it,
their lives changed completely. For the first time, man could stay at one place and produce food.
From that time they began to found permanent communities in fertile river valleys. Settlers
learned to use the water supply to irrigate the land.
All of the major ancient civilizations - in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley and China
emerged in the 4th millennium B. C. Historians still debate over which one emerged first. It may
well have been the Middle East, in an area called the Fertile Crescent. This region stretches from
the Nile River in Egypt northward along the coast of former Palestine, then eastward into Asia to
include Mesopotamia. Some say this Fertile Crescent was the real Garden of Eden.

Mesopotamia (from a Greek term meaning "between rivers") lies between the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers, a region that is part of modern Iraq. By about 5000 BC, small tribes of farmers
had made their way to the river valleys. On the floodplains they raised wheat, barley, and peas.

They cut through the riverbanks so that water for their crops could flow to lower lying soil. In
this area people settled along the riverbanks.

Egypt Egyptian farmers had settled in the long and narrow valley of the Nile River by 5000
B.C. Within 2,000 years they had invented writing, built massive irrigation works, and
established a culture that bequeathed the pyramids and other magnificent monuments to
posterity. The primitive farming settlements of Egypt were concerned with the raising of
vegetables, grains, and animals. These settlements slowly gave way to larger groupings of
people. Probably the need to control the Nile floodwaters through dams and canals eventually led
to the rise of government in the region.

India The valley of the Indus River is considered to be the birthplace of Indian civilization.
Located on the Indian subcontinent in modern Pakistan, the Indus civilization was not discovered
by archaeologists until 1924. The ancient history of this region is obscured by legend. It appears,
however, that by 4000 B. C. primitive farmers were raising vegetables, grains and animals along
the riverbank. By 2700 B. C. two major cities, Harappa and Mohenjo - Daro, including numerous
smaller towns had emerged.

Ancient China As in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and along the Indus River, Chinese civilization
began within a major river valley. Modern China itself is a huge geographical expanse. Around
4000 B. C., this huge area contained an almost infinite number of ethnic groups and languages.

This history, in which a vast area populated by diverse ethnic groups became, over time, a more
or less single culture, began in the Yellow River Valley.

America

The earliest elaborate civilization known in the Americas is that of the Olmec of

central Mexico. The Olmec lived in the lowlands of present Veracruz and Tabasco states from
about 1200 BC. They left artifacts ranging from tiny jade carvings to huge monuments such as
the volcanic rock statues at San Lorenzo. These monuments suggest the existence of an
organized and diverse society with leaders who could command the work of artisans and
laborers. Other early civilizations in the Americas include the Chavin of Peru, the Chono of
Chile, the Tehuelche of Argentina, the Tupians of Brazil, the Maya of the Yucatan Peninsula, and
the Inca of Peru.